Towards IPOS (International Platform for Ocean Sustainability)

The ocean is essential for life on Earth, and it is urgent to take action to ensure its sustainability as the ocean’s health is being harmed by human activities such as overfishing, climate change, pollution, or its artificialization. So far Nations have largely fallen short from meeting collectively agreed ocean sustainability targets and objectives under various international agreements, treaties and frameworks. To effectively respond to this crisis, all decision-makers need both political will and the best available knowledge. But today, this knowledge is fragmented across numerous initiatives and multiple reports that either do not respond to the priority needs of decision-makers, or fail to adequately bring together transdisciplinary expertise (natural, economic, humanities, and social sciences, Indigenous and Local Knowledge, etc.) or insufficiently involve the diverse communities affected by the ocean crisis. The Towards IPOS initiative intends to address these challenges by becoming the new gateway that (re)connects knowledge and decisions for a sustainable ocean. Aimed to enlighten the action of decision makers and answer their burning questions, the Towards IPOS initiative will co-produce request-driven documents and digital tools by aggregating and synthesizing knowledge in an inclusive and holistic way, and propose recommendations for necessary decisions. The goal is for the Towards IPOS initiative is to be established as a neutral independent entity under the United Nations umbrella. Benefiting from growing support within the international community, at both political and scientific levels, the IPOS is gaining momentum towards its launch at the United Nations Conference in June 2025. The team is currently engaged in developing the Towards IPOS mission, positioning, governance, participatory approach, partnerships, and priority topics for pilot projects.